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UNITED STATES | Dallas, Texas Travel Guide
Thursday, January 2, 2025
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A Brief History of Dallas
A Brief History of Dallas
The ostentatious spirit that Texans are known for most certainly began early in the state’s history. The first settler, John Neely Bryan, built his cabin in 1841 on the banks of the Trinity River and then widely publicized his new “town” of one. Within a year, two more families joined him. When the railroads came to town in 1873, the population soared beyond 7,000.
Early on, Dallas began its social ascension. One of the earliest cosmopolitan influences was brought by Francois Cantagrel, who formed a utopian society called La Reunion on the bluffs a few miles west of Dallas. He brought around 300 French, Belgian, American and Swiss socialists to his planned community. The enclave of artists and idealists failed, a result of poor management and placement. Some of the Europeans returned home, but many of the scientists, musicians and writers moved to Dallas, lending the growing town a cultured air.
That Dallas became what it is today, a massive hub for many industries, is curious, considering it was not as well endowed as many other Texas cities. Galveston and Houston were both natural ports. El Paso was a natural pass both west and south. The Trinity River, which bisects Dallas, wasn’t even navigable. But that was no matter. It became the biggest inland cotton market in the world and was the largest publishing hub in the South.
Dallas pulled off its biggest coup in 1936 by landing the Texas centennial celebration with a bid of $10 million and a pledge of 242 acres. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ginger Rogers, Shirley Temple, Jack Dempsey and hundreds of thousands of other people attended the celebration. It was estimated that, between the Texas Centennial Celebration and 1937’s Pan American Exposition, over 13 million visitors walked the streets of Dallas. Much to the chagrin of older cities like Houston and Galveston, which had actually been around in 1836 at the beginning of the centennial, Big D became the perpetual host.
While Dallas’ first boom was launched by the railroads, subsequent booms (and busts) followed cotton, oil, insurance, real estate, banking and the computer industries. It has become a center for several major corporations, including J.C. Penney, American Airlines, Mary Kay Cosmetics and the Boy Scouts.
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